Kayakers enter restricted space at JFK airport

NEW YORK - Two men on a kayak were able to enter a restricted area at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, the second such incident in two years.

Now, one police union is calling a multimillion-dollar security system there a failure.

Jordan Crooms and Anthony Giglio used a kayak to reach the shore near JFK. Maintenance men found the two near an airport pier around 1:30 Saturday morning.

Crooms and Giglio say their kayak had overturned.

"We were almost drowning," Giglio said. "We were like, we couldn't hold on to the boat and we were getting pulled under and out, all different ways. We even swirled a little bit."

The maintenance workers called police.

The kayak incident was the second security breach at JFK in the last two years.

CBS News

It was in this area two years ago that a man whose Jet Ski had run out of gas climbed an 8-foot fence, crossed two active runways, and walked into the airport.

He was never detected by the system's surveillance cameras and motion detectors.

William Vorlicek is a counterterrorism consultant.

"What they're going to have to do is have an unbiased, unopinionated person say, 'Show me what happened. Let's see what happened,'" he said.

A law enforcement source tells CBS News the kayakers were not close enough to set off the security system's alarms.

But in a statement to CBS News, the Port Authority's police union says the system is a failure and "the Port Authority's reluctance to provide adequate marine patrol and rescue services, along with its failed perimeter intrusion technology, is not in the flying public's best interest."

In an email, the Port Authority told CBS News the "kayakers did not breach the secure airfield. They were seeking help in a restricted water area and at a light pier. They were encountered quickly and provided help."